Updates & Stories

On my first day with Conservation Corps, I pulled into a dark and snowy parking lot where my crew leader and the first crew member to arrive were standing to greet me. That crew member shook my hand and introduced herself: “I’m Sophia, but you can call me Grace,” she said. She was bright eyed and excited. Read More

Four-person crew will manage volunteers in wake of damage from Typhoon SoudelorSaint Paul, Minn. — Early this morning, a crew of AmeriCorps young adults from Conservation Corps Minnesota & Iowa boarded a plane for Saipan, where Typhoon Soudelor made landfall on August 2 before heading to Taiwan, China and Japan’s Ryukuy Islands. The typhoon left at least 38 dead and many more injured, and displaced thousands. There is still no power on the island and running water has been restored to only some areas. Saipan is one of the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific. Read More

Hours before dawn on a mid-August morning, my crew and I started the truck and began the drive east back to the Brainerd office, ending our final project trip in North Dakota. Our departure was marked only by the sound of jumping gravel and the hushing of countless field crickets, whose mating calls had made the last ten mornings so raucously serene. “What is that?” Read More

Does construction count as conservation? Why yes, yes it does. When we build a fence for instance, even if it is to protect bicyclists and hikers from steep hills in a recreational park, we’re promoting the protection of both recreational and preserved natural resources by keeping those places destination points for families containing the next generation of nature lovers. But, wait, that's not all!  Read More

There's a sense of peace waiting to be discovered in the outdoors that I've been spoiled by—that throughout my travels has become this miraculous anywhere-kind-of home. Sometimes that peace is the silence that drifts in right before a rainstorm: easy to miss when plugged into social networks of the 21st century but impossible to avoid when wading with my crew through the prairie while the horizon is gathering purple and green.  Read More

August has been exciting for the Metro Crew: rather than maintaining rain gardens, we finally had the opportunity to build them! For a week and a half we worked alongside a landscape architect from the nonprofit Metro Blooms. They worked with the neighborhood group in Prospect Park Minneapolis to give grants for rain gardens to be placed on thirteen homeowners’ properties, and we were there to help install them. Read More

As with anything in life, working on a field crew with Conservation Corps has taught me many lessons. Some I can use in my everyday life while others don’t transfer so well. With the help of my crew I have created a list of some of the most important. Read More

“Wow, it’s a bee just chillin’ on my glove,” I thought to myself as I stared at the yellow jacket! I tried not to disturb it while I looked down to find my next stump to spray. By the next time I looked up five more yellow jackets had joined the glove party. I got a little concerned about this gathering once I noticed that they were trying to sting me through my gloves.  Read More

The impact of bees on agriculture, ecosystems and the environment as a whole is a topic with ever-increasing importance. On August 4, the Saint Paul summer youth program EcoRangers, along with the Restoring Relations crew from Conservation Corps, had the opportunity to join executive director and founder of Pollinate Minnesota, Erin Rupp, at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary for a honeybee education day. Read More

The NPS roving crew had the opportunity to work with the Midwest Archeological Center again this month, using ground-penetrating radar to search for human remains in an old cemetery at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield near Republic, Missouri. The Edgar family used this cemetery to bury their loved ones back in the early 1800s, before the Civil War battle at Wilson’s Creek in August of 1861, and the National Park Service has been eagerly waiting to locate the bodies within the cemetery in case they someday need to reinter the remains. Read More